


Experienced Morbidity

by whydidmyusernamechange



Category: Hiveswap
Genre: 90's slang is so fun to write omg, Also Yonkers and 48 by Tyler the Creator kind of helped me get this idea????, F/M, Gen, I wrote this after crying on the bathroom floor for 2 hours, It makes no sense I know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28103208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whydidmyusernamechange/pseuds/whydidmyusernamechange
Summary: Essentially me taking a wild guess on what Act 3 will be like.
Relationships: Joey Claire & Xefros Tritoh, Joey Claire/Xefros Tritoh
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Experienced Morbidity

**Author's Note:**

> TW: for drowning

You had been in this position before.

Girls aren’t exactly all that nice.

Something that everyone in the universe knew. They were manipulative, and mean, and toxic. Of course this didn’t apply to all girls. But most- at least ones that you attempted to friend, were like this.  
In 5th grade you had been hanging out with several girls for some time. You weren’t exactly their friend, but you were determined to change their minds about you. But when the leader of their clique had invited you to her pool party you knew for certain you had finally done it.   
You were one of them.  
You had friends.  
Of course most friends don’t force you to jump into the deep end of a pool, and when you refuse they push you in.

And that’s how you knew you’d been there before.  
The fall was much longer.  
When you fell into the cobalt pool it was warm.  
You were standing on the balls of your feet, and slowly rolling onto your feet. The sun was like glittering buttermilk with melted butterscotch swirled into it. But contrasted against the pale cerulean sky it seemed to be even brighter.  
It was funny to you how just because some floating rocks in space decided to align in a certain way we now have seasons, and days, and nights.   
It was funny to you how people often compared clouds to animals and bugs, but you never seem to see it. As you would lay in your backyard, half-listening to your brother’s ramblings about Area 51 or the Illuminati or whatever he was obsessed with that week. You’d pretend to see it. To you they just looked like, well clouds.   
Cumulus.   
Cumulonimbus.

You squinted.  
You weren’t quite sure what that one was. It didn’t matter though, your test on metrology won’t be until-

And just like that you could feel her hands grip your shoulders. You hadn’t been listening. Just as you turned around there they were.   
As the water covered you like foamy blankets you wanted to imagine that at least you fell gracefully.

But you were certain you didn’t.

“Wha-!” You shrieked.   
You flailed and kicked your limbs about. You attempted to force your eyes open, but the minimal chlorine that leaked into the slits of your eyes was enough for your sensitive observatory organ to essentially send signals to your brain to shut off what little control you had at the moment of your instincts. Then suddenly there you were, your arms floating above the surface.

“Oh my God, Jo you’re such a spaz! Mia, look!”  
“Don’t touch me!” You flail out of the girls grasp, only to lose your balance on your tippy toes touching the bottom of the pool.   
“I got you, Joey!” She giggled.  
“Why would you do that?” You looked at her in shock. “I thought we were friends!”   
“Well friends like to joke with each other. It’s not that big of a deal, just calm down, you’re totally buggin’.” The girl responded.

Joey released herself from her grasp.  
“J-Joey where are you going?”  
You didn’t answer.  
“Are you seriously going home, she was just joking?”  
You put on the large t-shirt you had brung.  
“At least call your mom before you walk all the way home like that!” The girl’s voice had a tinge of insincerity she tried to cover up with a sympathetic laugh.

You froze in your steps, and felt your bottom lip start to quiver.  
I can’t let myself cry in front of these girls.

“Eat my shorts.”

You slammed the gate on her fence on your way out.   
You didn’t bother to look back, your self-esteem had boosted from what you felt was a tremendous exit and didn’t want to ruin it. 

It took you what you assumed was maybe an hour to walk home. Not that made a difference. Roxy didn’t come home until an hour later to see you still in your pool clothes and smelling like chlorine.

“Wait, I thought you were sleeping over?” She asked as she walked into the den and sat next to you.  
A band you didn’t know was playing on MTV. Not that you were waiting on another band to start or anything, you just didn’t want to think. Because thinking makes you upset, and you don’t like to be upset. So you’d put that aside for another day.  
“Nah.”  
“Oh alright, cool.”   
You leaned on her shoulder. You didn’t do this often anymore, you wouldn't appear more mature, but when you were upset like this sometimes you couldn’t help but indulge in such childish things.  
“You good?”  
“Yep.” Your face turned warm, and you could feel your eyes leaking. It made your face wet, but at least it was scentless.  
At least it didn’t wreak of chlorine.   
Roxy may not be your parent, but at this point she was the closest you would have to it at this point.  
“Are you sure?”

“I learned how to swim today. The lessons were free, but in a way I still had to pay.”  
“O-oh, sweetie.” Roxy held you as if you were a child. You could feel your nose running as you began to tremble.

“It’s alright you can cry.”

You had been in this position before.

Except the fall was a lot longer.   
Like, a lot longer.

And this time there was a lot more than just one splash. Too many to count in fact. It was too much to count. Because not only was it a piece of machinery, it was so many lives, too many lives.  
“And for what?” You asked yourself, but you had a feeling it was because of you. It wasn’t like your disguise was all that convincing.

The reason why all this happened was because of you. It wasn’t fair!   
You wanted to throw a fit.  
You could feel the rage boiling in your blood.   
You know it’s an immature response to something that goes back decades as far as you know. Considering how Xefros talks about this it’s not anything new.   
Xefros.  
“CRAP.”

You looked around for him, for a minute in the fall you seem to have gotten absolved in your own introspection, but where was he?  
Not that it was something to worry about too long, as your safety had become a concern again.  
The water didn’t taste like chlorine. Although it wasn’t exactly disgusting like you expected lake water to taste. It was metallicky   
But apparently being thrown into life threatening situations helps you learn fast, because it wasn't that hard for you to swim back up again.   
The waves rolled over your head, and you struggled to maintain your tranquility. Although who could really blame you?   
You were swimming through a marsh of scraps of burnt metal and floating bodies. But still sparks and sharpnel seemed to rain from the sky. Although it was only tiny shards of it, it was still enough to worry about any cuts you may be receiving, that could be infected considering you were swimming through a lake of blood and possibly rusted metal.  
Columns and rows and graphs of illness and infections this could cause you or your friend. Although Xefros was a troll, you were sure they had their own illness to deal with. They bled after all. Blood of course has many different functions, but it ultimately is tasked with transporting oxygen and nutrients to the rest of your body. You had plucked a thorn out of Dammek’s pet-dad-”loose-est”-or-whatever-Xefros-called-it’s paw, so their animals seem to have similar biology to humans. So maybe even them?  
You dismissed this thought, and focused on finding Xefros among the chaos you couldn’t allow yourself to be too caught up with what illness could kill him when-  
“No!” You shouted by accident.   
You looked around, half-hoping one of the floating bodies were just comatose, half-hoping another drone would fly by and drop another bomb down because they heard you exclaim.  
“He’s not dead.” You told yourself, firmly. 

You continued to swim through the water, until eventually you reached a floating piece of what looked like what remained of a train seat.   
You climbed atop of it cautiously, praying your weight wouldn’t tip it over. You removed your shoes carefully and tied their laces together.   
As you peeled your wet socks off your feet to reveal your feet had morphed into what an old woman's would resemble you're sure. You grimaced at your wrinkly toes and quickly put them back on. tried to avoid looking at them as you took off your leg warmers.   
You catalogued them into your sylladex and rose up.  
You stood on your tippy toes to try and get a better view of the massacre that was folded out in front of you.  
In the distance you could see that somebody it appeared was attempting to balance themselves on a floating corpse.  
From such a far a distance you could only hope it was Xefros, not that he had any obvious giveaways in appearance, besides his horns of course, but as far as you could see in the rust blood car, that seems to be very common among trolls.   
As you swam closer you could hear her exclaiming in the form of two voices.  
"Granted, I did not know that you were still alive, but regardless, gutter blood, just lay on your back and float."  
Galekh.  
"i really doubt thax how thax worxs i mean i'm not dead yet."  
Yikes.  
"Well you may be in a moment if you do not cooperate. Now think like you are dead, that is all you lowbloods think of I am sure, so just pretend."  
His voice continued to rise in agitation.  
"yeah i'll pass I mean you seem fine floating while gripping on to my arm."  
"Alright, fine then."  
As the older troll shoved Xefros into the water, you screamed out without a second thought, "WAIT."  
Xefros continued to squirm beneath the water that seemed to have turned mauve under the night sky's influence.  
For one moment Galekh let down his guard for Xefros to cling on to him like a cat using his nail.  
Galekh lost his balance and tripped beneath the waves, only to come back up his head bobbing up and down in the water, maybe a meter away from you and Xefros.  
"When I get back to land I am going to report you for insubodiance!" He yelled while floating away powerless against the waves that have begun to pick up.  
You helped Xefros hold himself against you while you balance on what looked like a door.  
"oh uhm alright thanx i guess." Xefros responded back.  
"Didn't you hear what he said?" You ask your companion.  
"no nox really to be honest." He shrugged.

"He's going to report you for insubordination!" You responded appalled at his lack of concern.

"i don't really know how he'd do thax i mean i don't work for him or anything ¯\\_X:]_/¯"

"Good point.. Well thank goodness you're okay!" You tackled him in a hug.

"um jOEY." 

"Oh yeah sorry, I forgot we were kinda just hanging onto a door.."

"ya."

"Well what now?" You turned to Xefros. His hair was now sort of everywhere on his face, not that it was exactly flattering as it was wet of course. But his face as he pondered was a bit cute, you thought to yourself.  
"i guess we just have to take the long way." He responded and began swimming in the direction of shore.   
It was a murky looking swamp with thick undergrowth. It was quite intimidating, but it's not longer either of you had much of a choice.  
You followed his lead and soon you both made it to the shore.  
You walked quickly to catch up with Xefros and noticed a deep abrasion on his arm. He seemed to have noticed you staring at it, as he slid down that sleeve, but the other up.   
"Xefros-" You stop in your tracks and cross your arms.  
"uh yeah?" He responded, turning to you.  
"Your arm let me look at it. It's so deep how'd you get that? You can't ignore cuts like that!"  
"joey don't worry about it I'm fine X:]"

You weren't listening.  
"Gimme a minute.." You searched through your sylladex for a moment while Xefros shuffled his hands together awkwardly, muttering,"i don't think this is necessary, joey.."   
"Aha!" You declared, triumphantly. You held the first aid kit above your head with flair as if you were in a video game and had just been awarded a rare item.  
"Sit down, Xefros." You told him, he sat down obediently on a rotting tree stump.   
As you kneeled next to him and unrolled his sleeve he noticed your feet seemed to lack their normal coverings.   
"heh, what happened to your shoes, joey?" He asked with a slightly playful tone in his voice.   
"Oh they're in my sylladex, not that that matters at the moment."   
You raised an alcohol wipe to arm before momentarily telling him, "Now this may sting a bit, it's just rubbing alcohol, don't worry too much about it." You waved your hand dismissively.  
After cleaning his wound gently, as it appeared to be a lot deeper than you previously thought, you prepared to wrap his arm in a bandage.   
"Now try to be careful Xefros, alright?" "well of course i doubt we'll make it if i end up dying from a sharpnel heh."   
"That's not really what I meant, but yeah!" You help him up from the rotting tree stump. "I mean you have Dammek waiting for you somewhere? And as much as I don't like him, he's your monorail."  
"it's moirail." Xefros corrected you.  
"Right, well you get it! And you're my friend, too! Sure we're not in a quadrant-thingy but I'm gonna do what I can to support you, because I care about you!"  
You look up at Xefros, grinning.  
He looked a bit flustered from your words of endearment and encouragement. "uh.. thanks joey." 

"No problem! Now we should probably get a move on considering our circumstances.."

**Author's Note:**

> If you have played Hiveswap please write Starcrossed fan fiction I will sob I love this pairing too much.


End file.
